Synthesis of mesoporous sulfur-doped Ta2O5 nanocomposites and their photocatalytic activities

Adel A Ismail; M Faisal; Farid A Harraz; A Al-Hajry; A G Al-Sehemi

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2016.03.019

Synthesis of mesoporous sulfur-doped Ta2O5 nanocomposites and their photocatalytic activities

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2016 Jun 1:471:145-154. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2016.03.019. Epub 2016 Mar 12.

Authors

Adel A Ismail¹, M Faisal², Farid A Harraz³, A Al-Hajry⁴, A G Al-Sehemi⁵

Affiliations

¹ Advanced Materials and Nano-Research Centre, Najran University, P.O. Box: 1988, Najran 11001, Saudi Arabia; Central Metallurgical Research and Development Institute (CMRDI), P.O. Box: 87 Helwan, Cairo 11421, Egypt. Electronic address: adelali141@yahoo.com.
² Advanced Materials and Nano-Research Centre, Najran University, P.O. Box: 1988, Najran 11001, Saudi Arabia.
³ Advanced Materials and Nano-Research Centre, Najran University, P.O. Box: 1988, Najran 11001, Saudi Arabia; Central Metallurgical Research and Development Institute (CMRDI), P.O. Box: 87 Helwan, Cairo 11421, Egypt.
⁴ Advanced Materials and Nano-Research Centre, Najran University, P.O. Box: 1988, Najran 11001, Saudi Arabia; Department of Physics, College of Science and Arts, Najran University, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Research Center for Advanced Materials Science, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia.

PMID: 27017474
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2016.03.019

Abstract

Mesoporous sulfur (S)-doped Ta2O5 nanocomposites have been synthesized for the first time through the sol-gel reaction of tantalum chloride and thiourea in the presence of a F127 triblock copolymer as structure directing agent. The as-formed mesophase S-doped Ta2O5 hybrid gels were calcined at 700°C for 4h to obtain mesoporous S-Ta2O5 nanocomposites. The experimental results indicated that the surface area of the S-doped Ta2O5 was up to 50m(2)g(-1) and the pore diameter was controllable in the range of 3-7.7nm. The S-doped Ta2O5 nanocomposites behave as superior visible light-sensitive photocatalysts and the 1.5at.% S-doped Ta2O5 (S1.5) photocatalyst exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity of ∼92% for the photodegradation of methylene blue, identical to 80% TOC removal after three hours illumination under visible light. The photodegradation rate of S1.5 photocatalyst showed 3.4 times higher than the undoped Ta2O5 due to their narrow bandgap, large surface area, mesostructure and well crystalline state. The S1.5 photocatalyst could be recycled at least five times without an apparent decrease in its photocatalytic efficiency, indicating its high stability for practical applications. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report that demonstrates one-step synthesis of mesoporous S-doped Ta2O5 nanocomposites as an efficient photocatalysts under visible light illumination.

Keywords: Mesoporous; Nanocomposites; Photocatalyst; S-doped Ta(2)O(5); Visible light.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't